Blessed Are the Meek

Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. Matthew 5:5 NIV

What makes a successful entrepreneur? Process-oriented, empathetic, self-motivated, persuasive, confident, risk-taker, and resilient are just a few of the characteristics and personality traits according to leading management experts. We tend to think of success-oriented personalities as bold, brash, bigger-than-life personalities that dominate the headlines.

There is nothing wrong with many of the personality traits used to describe successful leaders unless they lead to attitudes of self-will, self-interest, and self-assertiveness. However, I could not find the one trait that Jesus used to identify his disciples – meekness. Unfortunately, this term is not even used to describe church leaders.

The word “meek” has taken on some negative connotations in our modern language definitions, resulting in recent Bible translations using alternate words such as “humble” or “gentle.” These words probably express Jesus’ third Beatitude better for our modern world, yet there is something that makes the word meek stand out for Jesus’ disciples.

Sitting on the side of a mountain, Jesus taught a revolutionary message. It changed the way his disciples would live life. “The godless may boast and throw their weight about, yet real possession eludes their grasp. The meek, on the other hand, although they may be deprived and disenfranchised by men, yet because they know what it is to live and reign with Christ, can enjoy and even ’possess’ the earth, which belongs to Christ.” –John Stott

You may not be familiar with William Duma and rightly so since he wasn’t powerful, successful, or wealthy according to the world’s definitions. Yet the years of his earthly life could be defined as a flourishing life lived according to Jesus’ Beatitudes. Maybe it is only in death that another person can say of someone else that they were meek and inherited the earth. Born in South Africa in the early 1900s, he was a herdsman and had limited opportunities for schooling, yet God would use him to cross racial, economic, and political lines throughout his life.

Pastor Duma said in telling his story, “When we choose deliberately to obey Him, then with all His mighty power He will tax the remotest star and the last grain of sand to assist us.” (from Take Your Glory Lord by Mary Garnett)

Sydney Hudson-Reed wrote of Pastor Duma, “If we seek for a human explanation of his success we seek in vain. But pull aside the curtain on his prayer life and the answer is plain. Duma was essentially a man of prayer. Prayer had the prior claim on his life and time. He saturated his service with prayer, and intercession was the secret of his healing ministry. The many hours spent in the presence of God showed on his face and was evident in the power of his preaching and healing.”

Thomas Brooks, a 15th-century English non-conformist Puritan preacher, expressed the heart of a meek person, even as he faced pressure from the government to conform to the established church. “The humble soul will bless God under misery as well as under mercy, when God frowns as when he smiles, when he takes as when he gives, under crosses and losses as under blessings and mercies. The humble believer looks through all secondary causes, and sees the hand of God….The language of the humble soul is: ‘If it is your will that I should be in darkness, I will bless you; and if it is your will that I should be again in light, I will bless you; if you comfort me, I will bless; and if you afflict, I will bless; if you make me poor, I will bless; if you make me rich, I will bless.’”

Jesus’ words that morning were not a ‘three-points and poem’ type exhortation to the crowd but a lived-out example. He lived a life of being meek and showed how to flourish in that meekness. Matthew would record Jesus saying, “Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.” (Matt 11:29) Luke would record his exhortation to live a humble life, “For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.” (Luke 14:11)

The bold, brash, and bigger-than-life personalities may get all the attention today, but the real end-of-life game changers will be the meek, humble, and gentle ones that will inherit the earth. The crowd that gathered that day to hear Jesus’ words, “Blessed are the meek” experienced the beginning of the promise that His followers “would inherit the earth.”

“Brothers and sisters, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.  God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him.” – I Corinthians 1:26-29 NIV

God is great!